Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov, born on March 21, 1950, in Moscow to an Armenian father from Tbilisi and a Russian mother, is a Russian diplomat and politician who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation since March 9, 2004, making him the longest-serving foreign minister in post-Soviet Russia.[1][2][3][4][7] Lavrov graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) in 1972 with a degree in international relations and began his career at the Soviet embassy in Sri Lanka, where he gained fluency in Sinhala and Dhivehi, alongside English, French, and Russian.[1][3][4][6][8] He later held positions in the Soviet Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York from 1981 to 1988, served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, and was Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN from 1994 to 2004, including as representative to the UN Security Council.[1][2][3][6] Appointed foreign minister under President Vladimir Putin, Lavrov has been a key figure in Russian diplomacy, chairing the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe and the Board of Trustees of the Russian International Affairs Council.[1] He holds the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and has received state awards, including Russia's highest honor, the Order of Saint Andrew the Apostle the First-Called, for his contributions to foreign policy.[1][5] Lavrov remains highly relevant as Russia's top diplomat, defending Moscow's positions on major issues such as the Syrian civil war—where he used UN vetoes to shield the Assad regime—the 2018 Salisbury poisonings, and Russia's 2022 special military operation in Ukraine, which he has justified internationally despite global sanctions targeting him.[3][5][6] His direct style has defined Russia's engagements amid ongoing geopolitical tensions.[5]